Catching the Wind: Avatar drabbles
by juniper red
Summary: Almost drabbles centered on the the moments and characters that sometimes pass by unnoticed and are more awesome than they first appear. Ch4: Ursa
1. Standing with Gods

Catching the Wind

Disclaimer: Too awesome to own, but just the right amount of awesome to play with.

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><p>Sometimes Sokka forgets just how powerful Aang is.<p>

True, he is the Avatar, but most of the time he acts like a kid, penguin sledding, riding koi fish, hijacking mail chutes. He can be serious, but always that wide-eyed optimism shines through.

And then there are moments like this, when Aang is standing alone amid empty and broken buildings, an angry spirit thundering towards him. Strong, impossibly fast and enormous, Habei has more arms than any creature should and blue-white screams that destroy buildings.

But when Aang is caught in that blue-white light, he only flinches at the noise.

Sokka can't begin to imagine the kind of power that implies, to stand on equal ground with the gods when the very bones of the world fall away before them – but it doesn't matter. Powerful and unworldly though Aang might be, he is still just a kid, alone, and he's family.

Sokka has to help.

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><p>AN: First of several drabble-like bits, with more to come. I'm trying to focus on potentially awesome moments/abilities/characters that were overlooked – if you have any suggestions or requests, let me know and I'll try to write it. In the mean time, enjoy and review!

And to anyone who cares, apologies for not having written anything in so long… sorry!


	2. Shape of a Soul

Catching the Wind

Disclaimer: Too awesome to own, but just the right amount of awesome to play with.

Sometimes Iroh could see the future.

Not always, not the way that lovely fortuneteller from Earth could. But Iroh has been around a long time and he knows _people_. He can see the shapes that souls take and he is one of the best _pai sho_ players around – it's not hard to put together. It's almost a hobby of his, watching people and predicting where they might go, what they might do.

But there are some who stick out.

…An earthbender so in love with her element that it resonated in time to her heartbeat. One day, Iroh knows, that love will grant her more strength than any power-hungry master could dream…

…A young boy with the gift of improvisation and a mind flexible enough to not tie itself in knots. Caution and imagination bound together and woe to the man who underestimates him. One day he'll see it too. In the meantime Iroh is putting together an extra _pai sho_ set, just in case…

…A child with a heart big enough to forgive the world and light enough to not be crushed by its weight. The most obvious and the most well hidden. Iroh sees more than he lets on and he dreams of dragons. This boy has the spirit of one and where he passes the wind smells of change…

…And a young man with a spirit of fire and honor as deep as the ocean… well, there's a reason Iroh always stood by his nephew.

A/N: Chapter the second. Hope I got Iroh right…


	3. He who Laughs

Catching the Wind

Disclaimer: Too awesome to own, just the right amount of awesome to play with.

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><p>There were many people who were not happy that the Avatar was a kid. Mostly they felt that a being of great power should have more wisdom to go with it, more experience. Some just thought that a being of great power should act like it. A rare few worried that it was a terribly burden for one so young.<p>

Bumi was pretty sure it was what would save them all.

Like most of the people living nowadays, Bumi had never known the world with a fully realized Avatar in it. According to the busybodies (which was really almost everyone) when the Avatar kept the balance everything was perfect. Without the Avatar, the common people had no hope of really ending the war. The return of the Avatar would fix everything.

Bumi was pretty sure that was a load of flying lemur doo.

A long time ago, Bumi had a friend, the greatest friend anyone could have asked for, if a little dim when it came to the potential fun and mayhem of everyday objects. He wasn't the brightest or the most skilled, but he was fun and creative and kind in that selfless way that children often are. There was joy in him, for everything, and that was what drew Bumi to him, another font of laughter as deep as his own.

Bumi was pretty sure that the world would be a lot better if adults remembered how to laugh more.

When Aang found out that he was the Avatar, Bumi decided then and there that he would be personally responsible for ensuring that Aang still knew how to laugh. Others would help – Gyatso was probably the most awesome old person ever – but you can only get so old and Aang would more than just him. Of course, making sure that Aang still knew how to laugh meant that he couldn't forget either. Omashu had the best insurance policies of anywhere in Earth Kingdom.

Bumi is still rather proud of that.

The news that the Air Nomads had been wiped out hit like a blow. Everywhere there was frightened speculation about the Fire Nation and what would happen next. And everywhere there was the question of the Avatar – few had known who he was, but he had been an Air Nomad. What would happen to them now? Bumi took the news and kept going. Fewer instances of property damage, fewer pranks, he grew quieter and learned to listen to the ground and the spaces between words. He became the greatest Earthbender in Omashu, and found others in many nations who had learned how to listen. He became inordinately and often annoyingly fond of puns and _pai sho_. And he waited.

Bumi knew that Aang would be back, and he would be there to remind his friend how to laugh.

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><p>AN: It… got long. It wasn't supposed to be this long. But there's really nothing to be done about Bumi anyway. Sorry for the great absence. Please review!


	4. Shadows and Flames

Catching the Wind

Disclaimer: Too awesome to own, just the right amount of awesome to play with.

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><p>Everyone with a connection to power knows that the important things happen in the shadows.<p>

The throne is where victories are proclaimed but the spaces behind the throne is where the victories are won. Some think that this is why the Firelords ring the dais with flame, that none may approach too closely, that they might control the shadows around the seat of their power.

In some ways it is an apt metaphor – those who come too close to the Firelords and their control of the country are like to get burned, in more than one sense. It is sometimes said that only when the heir can walk through the flames of their predecessor are they ready for the throne.

Ozai only tried it once before he decided it was an old wives tale told by the weak to excuse their failure. Real strength lay in dominion, not endurance. Just one among many reasons why Iroh was the weaker brother.

(Iroh walked through once, in his twenties, when some important papers had been left behind. He never told anyone).

When Azulon's judgement came down on his son, Ozai was pragmatic. Zuko had never had the drive of his sister, the sense of power if only one had the cunning and strength to take it. He had always been Ursa's child; too kind and soft to use the power that life had offered him. If he could not use it, another would take it.

Ozai was similarly pragmatic when Ursa stepped in to protect their son, offering power in exchange for mercy. He had married her for her beauty and her family's political power and her strength, but that strength had waned with the birth of their children. She would never get near Azulon, but whether her ploy succeeded or failed was no great loss to him. He was strong enough now that he could take power from his father, flames or no.

Her success was a pleasant surprised, but a consequence of her plan was that she be banished and go into hiding on some remote island where no one could find her and use her to smear his name. Even so, Ozai kept the flames around the dais cautiously high for the first several years of his reign.

She never returned, but it would not have mattered. What Ozail never knew, what Iroh had always known, and what Azulon realized too late. Ursa had always been able to walk through the Firelord's flames.

(Years after the war had ended, a strange woman approached the bare dais of Firelord Zuko and asked him to raise the flames. Convinced by Iroh's smile, Zuko did so, and shortly welcomed his mother with tears and awe and open arms).

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><p>AN: I had a request to do a chapter with Ursa. This… was not what I thought was going to happen. But I haven't been able to make it be anything else or any less weird so, apologies? I hope it is enjoyable nonetheless.


	5. The Little Things

Catching the Wind

Disclaimer: Too awesome to own, but just the right amount of awesome to play with.

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><p>These kids are unusual. He knows this. After all, this is the Avatar and his traveling companions and there can be nothing usual about them. They have seen war and fighting and danger, just as he has, and they have become hardened to it as everyone who deals with it must.<p>

He has been impressed by them; Katara's openness and kindness, Sokka's unconventional brilliance, Aang's great well of compassion and bravery. They are amazing kids, and they make him ashamed of his weakness and compromise.

But it isn't until they are falling through the air that he gets it.

Sokka has just dropped their engine into the fissure with all the determination and selflessness that he has come to expect from him, and they are going down. He feels as content with this as he can given that he really does not want to die and leave Teo alone. He feels redeemed. But Sokka does not blink, just ties a line to his boomerang and starts twirling it, as confident and determined as ever.

"Get ready."

And Aang is there, Sokka's boomerang snugs the line tight, and they are flying back to solid ground.

It hits him.

Katara, hugging her brother tightly, never doubted that they would be saved. Sokka, for all his dramatics, never panicked for an instant. And Aang never looked back, knowing, trusting that he would be in the right place, that Sokka would know what to do, that all would be well.

They have done this too many times before and will do it too many times again, fierce and brave and casual, their everyday the stuff of legend. And even as he worries about the lost air balloon, part of him thinks it doesn't matter. Nothing matters in the face of these children who don't realize how they shine, but see the light reflected back at them in the faces of Teo and his friends.

They will save the world because they can't not. There is no room for anything but faith.

And, spirits help him, he has faith now, too.

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><p>AN: Because there is being used to war time, and then there's the gang, and that's just a whole different level.


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